


you're never alone

by mala_ptica



Series: The Adventures of Dadneto [1]
Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baby Mutants, Charles Is a Darling, Emotionally Crippled Erik Is Fun To Read, Fatherhood, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, Multi, Other, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-07
Updated: 2013-01-07
Packaged: 2017-11-24 00:12:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/628087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mala_ptica/pseuds/mala_ptica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Young widower Erik Lehnsherr is the proud father of four adorable, obnoxious children, whom he decides, against better judgement, to take on a road trip to the Grand Canyon.  Ah, the joys of single-parenthood.  This is a modern powered AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Unforgotten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforgotten/gifts).



> for Unforgotten, who pined for her own family road-tripping days. I could relate. Thank you so much to Cygnaut (aka iteribidem) for cheers and beta! Inspired in part by ExperimentalMadness's fic, Verging on Humanity (http://archiveofourown.org/works/576014/chapters/1032870), which is excellent, and you should all read, because it will make you cry.

Family vacation to see the Grand Canyon. It seemed simple enough. There was nature involved, no TV, no internet, just family bonding. But halfway through driving he wondered if taking a hormonal thirteen year-old, two over-caffeinated nine-year olds, and a four year old to a really, really, really big crack in the earth was such a good idea after all.

Or maybe that was the best idea.

“Ok, kids, we’ve hit the Buc-ee’s, now’s time to get out and use the restroom,” he hollered, pulling up next to a gas pump. The announcement earned him a chorus of shrieks.

“I want McDonalds!”

“I want a freeze-pop!”

“I want ice-cream!”

“I want a princess hat!”

“They only have those at Burger King!”

“No those are KING hats, not PRINCESS hats!”

“I wanna go to Burger Princess!”

A hand gripped his shoulder as he fumbled to undo his seatbelt. He turned, and looked his eldest in the eye. “Dad,” she whispered, her voice strained.

“Anya,” he deadpanned.

“Dad, can I have fifteen minutes alone from the kids while you pump gas?”

“They can’t be left alone,”

“They won’t be alone if you watch them,”

“You can’t be left alone,”

“I’ll have my bracelet and my cell phone on me please, pleaaaaaaaaaase,”

Each of his children wore some piece of metal jewelry or accessory, so he could keep tabs on them in case they ran off or got lost. The problem was getting them not to misplace their metal, or take it off. He was debating the ethics of tagging them in their sleep.

But damnit, she was getting clever.

“Fine, but ten, then I want you back by the car,”

“Amazing. And can I have ten bucks?”

“For what?”

She looked like she was about to cry. Her voice dropped to a whisper, and with Wanda and Pietro fighting anew, he almost didn’t hear her.

“I think I started my period.”

“Your-your what?”

“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD! She BIT me!”

He turned his head and yelled at the back of the car, “Don’t bite your brother!”

“My period!” Anya was now openly crying.

He slammed his head against the headrest. Periods. Great. He wasn’t equipped to handle that. “Do you know what to do?” He asked, weakly. Oh hell, that Magda hadn’t died, or that Suzanne hadn’t left him, he didn’t know what to do about periods. Maybe if he called Ruth, she could walk Anya through this.

“I’ve had sex ed, I know what to do!” she squeaked. Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes widened.

 _Oh, fuck, right._ Well, thank heavens he'd signed that waiver allowing her to have sex-ed class. The public school system had done something right.

“Uhm, uhm, here’s…something. I hope that’s enough.” He shoved a wad of cash into her hands, much more than the ten dollars she’d asked for, and if her eyes brightened at the wealth, he tried not to think hard on how much he’d just given her.  
“Go, please go.”

She kissed his cheek quickly, and dashed out of the car, towards the store and its rows upon rows of bathroom stalls. At least this place was clean.

“I wanna go with Anya!” Lorna whined, and kicked the back of his seat.

“WANDA, HOLD YOUR SISTER DOWN,” he barked, and got out of the car, making his way to the back with the monkey-leash backpack in hand for his youngest. “Pietro, stop crying, or no freeze-pops!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dad finally puts the kids to sleep, and takes a bit to talk to his boyfriend over the phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you again to iteribidem for beta! <3 you're a star

It was the last motel before the Grand Canyon.  He was working on plans for the next day. Anya wanted to take a mule ride down into the canyon, which was just plain not happening, not when there was no one to watch after Lorna, who was too small for that.  He was still revisiting the plan of a monkey backpack/leash for Pietro (thank heavens Wanda was well-behaved) when his phone beeped.

“Shit shit shit!” he muttered, tripping over a toy unicorn and someone’s tennis shoes on his way to get the phone and stop it from ringing and waking up the kids.  He hadn’t had enough money for multiple rooms, not that he’d trust the younger ones in their own suites anyway, so they were all sharing in the two-bed suite.  Anya and Lorna on one bed, the twins on another, and Erik in the chair.  Thank heavens it leaned back and had a footrest.

Speaking of small miracles, he got to the phone and silenced it before any of the children awoke.  A text message, from Charles.

_You still awake?_

Erik crept outside onto the balcony, using his powers to make sure the door didn’t creak as he slid it shut behind him and dialed Charles’s number.  It should have been speed dial by now, but whatever.

l“Hello?” a groggy voice answered.

“Hey, it’s me, did I wake you?”

“No,” Charles yawned. “Not at all, I was wondering about you.  Just wanted to wish you goodnight, is all, check in and everything,”

Erik smiled, and looked back through the window.  Everyone was asleep.  “We’re fine.  Anya had a minor emergency, but everything’s good as it can be.  I’m ready for this to be over.  Oh, hey, thanks for that book you sent Wanda, she loves it.”

“Oh, good, I’m so glad to hear that,” Charles replied. “I had Raven help me pick it out.  She said that Marie had liked that series.”

“Well, she’s got good taste.”

“But how are you doing, you still haven’t really said?”

Erik sank into a plastic patio chair.  “Tired, exhausted, all of the above.”

“Mm, I wish I could be there, and help.”

“Me too.”

There was a bit of silence.  He’d been talking to Charles for a number of months after meeting through the dating site, MutantMingle, and while things had seemed promising, it was still nerve-wracking to introduce the idea of daddy’s boyfriend to the kids.  The kids had already lost two other parental figures, and he didn’t want to force another parental figure into their lives and then lose them too.  Not only that, while his children were wonderful, diversity embracing creatures, and he had raised them to be that way, he still had no idea how they’d react.  If the kids didn’t feel comfortable with Charles, well, that was that.  His children were everything.

Charles had been patient, but no one could be asked to wait forever.

“And how are you, Charles?  Students giving you hell again?”

Charles cheered up a bit, but even he recognized the change in subject for what it signified.  “Oh, immensely, if I have to read one more paper on how the evolution of humans into bipedal organisms is directly related to their hunting prowess, I’m going to start sending my therapy bills to the undergrad bio department.”

Erik chuckled at that, “Don’t tell me, the evolution of the ass makes us the apex predator?”

“Oh darling, you always make it sound so much more fun than it is,” Charles cooed, and Erik flushed.  “But I hope that doesn’t embarrass you.”

“I’d like to meet you, after this trip,” Erik stated flatly.  “I want the kids to meet you too.”

“Oh,” Charles grew silent.  “Are you sure they’re - you’re ready for that?”

“I want to see you.  And…and it’s been over two years since Suzanne left,” Erik began, talking himself into this, “And five since Magda died.  It’s not fair to you to be kept waiting in the wings.”

“You sure you’re not just looking for a babysitter?” Charles’s quip cut deep, even if he meant it in jest.

Erik let silence answer for him.

“I didn’t mean that, Erik.”

“Sure.”

“No, Erik, I didn’t-”

“You don’t believe that I want you in my life?  That I’m scared shitless my kids are going to reject you without giving you a chance?  That you’ll reject them, after meeting them?”

“No, no, Erik, I could never-”

“Because Wanda talks in her sleep sometimes, she still thinks that she can communicate with her mom, and Lorna fries appliances when she throws tantrums, and when Suzanne left, Pietro just ran, and didn’t come back for a whole day, and Anya cries and has a breakdown whenever she sees her Aunt Ruth with a cigarette, because Magda died of lung cancer.  And they’re a lot of work, four kids mean a lot of work.”

Erik had raised his voice during the conversation, and felt tears erupt in his eyes.

“Erik, you sit down right now, and you listen to me,” Charles’s voice took a firm, commanding tone.

Erik didn’t sit, but Charles couldn’t see that.

“Erik I know you’re standing.”

Erik sat.

“Erik, my mother abandoned me after my father died.  My step-father and step-brother …well, they didn’t help.  My sister is literally the only family I have left, believe me, I understand the importance of family, I understand how unimaginably cruel the world can be towards children, and you know, I made contact with you, not the other way around, after reading your profile, and yes, I bloody know you have four children, and I’m not expecting this to be easy, but I want you to remember that I’m a person too, and I have their interests in mind, and if they’re not ready, then I don’t want to push things.”

“Charles, I-”

“Just shut up.”

He did.

“I love you, you blithering idiot, but you make it very difficult sometimes,” Charles snapped, after a short pause.

Erik snorted.  “You too, asshole.”

“This isn’t funny,” Charles retorted, failing to suppress a laugh of his own.

“It’s extremely funny.  You’re beautiful and brilliant and I’m sorry I said those things.”

“It’s all right, it’s all right, you should be worried, you’ve got four damned kids.”

“They’re not ‘damned kids’, they’re fucking beautiful little angels, all right?”

“Angels, yes, and I would love to meet them.  I’ve got an invitation to a conference coming up in Houston in April.  I hadn’t decided to accept yet, pending…well, I’d hope you’d ask.”

“Yes, yes, please, come - can you stay a few days longer?”

Charles laughed.  “I’ll see what I can do.”

“I’ll count the days.”

“Oh, you adorable romantic fool, whatever am I going to do with you?”

“I can think of a few-”

“DAAAAAAAAAAADDDY!   MAKE HIM STOP KICKING ME!”  Wanda’s shrieks came through from the other side of the glass, followed by whining from her siblings to shut up so they could sleep.

“Er, Charles, got to go.”

“I hear you, good luck, and good night sweet prince.”

“Now who’s the romantic?”

“Shut up before you get kicked out.”

“Right.  Night.”

He slipped the phone into his back pajama pocket and flicked his hand to open the door with his powers, and close it behind him, then went to tend after his kids.

“Pietro, stop kicking your sister…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *the evolution of butts discussion is in reference to an argument that broke out on tumblr, with magnificent commentary from clawfoottub and ariamaculata about the science of the butt. And this is included because I am five years old.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family finally reaches their destination, and hell, of course, is waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you again to iteribidem for beta! <3

They reached the Grand Canyon at dawn, in time to see the sunrise.  He held Lorna, bundled in his arms, and Wanda’s hand.  Anya was holding Pietro’s hand, walking nearer and nearer to the edge as Wanda called out for them to stay back, and his eldest peeked over her shoulder, gave him a little thumbs up, and slowed down but kept looking.  He sighed.  The wind up there was colder than he’d realized, so he had to fish out blankets from the car to wrap the kids in.

“Daddy, I want to go down,” Lorna whined.

“Only if you promise not to run,” he commanded, and let her down slowly.  She crept over to her older sister, and tugged on Wanda’s pink sweater until her older sister gave her a hand to squeeze.

He sighed, rubbing his back and stretching at the relief of not having to balance a four year old on his hip.  The iron oxide in the canyon ran like a warm current through his blood.  An idea struck him.

“You feel that honey, the metal in the rocks?”

Lorna bit her lip, concentrating.  Wanda squeezed her hand encouragingly, and scavenged a few flakes of rock off the ground to hold up for Lorna.

Lorna nodded, then smiled, “It’s warm, and happy,” she cooed, and he felt his heart grow three sizes.

But just then, the steel of Pietro’s hoodie zipper, and then the nickle of Anya’s bracelet moving in a flash.  He heard the screams a millisecond later.

He looked up, and saw Pietro galloping past the guards, and leaping out over the canyon edge.  Anya followed, dropping down.

His heart caught in his throat as Wanda screamed.  He dropped his daughters’ hands, let Wanda hold Lorna, and ran to the edge, summoning all metal he could, shaking the walls and dragging, clawing for a grip to grab his children and bring them back up, catch them before it was too late.  The walls of the canyon groaned but he only felt his children slipping through.  Out of the abyss floated up Anya, gentle as a fairy, holding Pietro, who clutched her with a look of sheer terror; he was white as a ghost, and crying.

He gaped, mesmerized, as Anya floated down to the safe side of the canyon, and let go of her brother.  A crowd had gathered, but parted to let Pietro run to his father and his twin’s side, and hug them tightly.  Lorna, who didn’t understand the fuss, started to cry.

Erik hugged each of his children, then knelt before Anya, who was gazing at her hands and feet like they were something alien.

“Anya, how did you…how long have you known about your power?”

“I haven’t.”

“What do you mean?  You could have died?”

“I couldn’t let him go alone, dad,” she stated simply, her eyes blown wide, crossing her arms over her belly.  “I didn’t know I could fly until we were falling,”

“Oh, oh my God,” he cried, and pressed her to him fiercely, kissing her hair.  “I can’t lose you, I can’t lose any of you,”  he gathered his other children to him in a grip, as they’d been hanging nearby, not wanting to leave his side.  Anya stepped back a bit so that they could have a sort of group hug squish, and Lorna squeaked that someone had stepped on her foot, so they broke apart, and got back to the car.

No one complained about not getting to get a mule ride, or anything else.

He packed his kids into the van, listened to a lecture from park rangers on safety, and waved off a few interested women who wanted to offer parenting advice to a lonely single dad, such as himself.  He melted the locks temporarily so he could finish a conversation, trapping the kids inside to protect them from the varied glances of onlookers.  Keeping them secured in the vehicle had the added bonus of preventing them from running away anymore, though he was pretty sure that they’d been sufficiently scared not to go to the edge anymore, at this point.

When everything was said and done, and the park officials seemed convinced he wasn’t going to file a lawsuit for lack of guardrails (yet), he climbed back into the van, and tilted the mirror to see everyone’s faces.

“Everyone buckled in tight?”

“Dad, you already know, ‘cause of your powers.” Wanda sighed.

“Yes, Wanda, thank you.  Is everyone ok?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“I didn’t hear you?”

“YES, DAD!”

“Ok, let’s go get ice cream,” he announced, and pulled away.  Enough excitement for one day, one month.  He looked forward to simple after this.  After a while, the kids in the back settled down.  He checked in the mirror to find the twins sleeping, leaning against each other.  Lorna was playing with a few rocks she’d picked up from the canyon, for her collection.  Beside him in the front seat, Anya leaned against the window, gazing wistfully outside.  Four children with mutant powers.  Four.  Incredible.  Charles would say something about the odds of that, he was sure.  He was so, so lucky, though, if she hadn’t…he pulled over for a moment.

“Dad, is everything ok?” Anya looked over, her forehead wrinkled, her lips turned down.

“I’m fine, I just need a minute,” he stumbled outside, slamming the door behind him, and crawled over to a bush to throw up.  Anya stepped up next to him, holding a baggie of travel wet wipes, and rubbed his back.

“I can’t lose you,” he breathed, head between his knees.

“I know, dad, I’m sorry, dad,” she whispered softly, and leaned her cheek against the back of his neck.  “I love you too,” she said, and he hugged her briefly as they both cried.


	4. epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you again to iteribidem, whose encouragement and enthusiasm got me writing even more! and thank you to everyone on tumblr who cheered on Erik in his harried attempts at parenting! this is for you <3

Lorna had fallen asleep by the time they reached the Baskin Robbins, so he carried her inside, over his shoulder, with a blanket wrapped around her.  She was so tired, she’d stopped sucking her thumb, and had let her hand fall out of her mouth.  He quietly moved her hand to her side.  Needed to break her of that habit; she was too old for that, and she’d be starting school soon and having enough problems, what with the green hair.  At least the twins’ kindergarten teacher, Miss Emma, had been very accepting of mutants, so hopefully Lorna would get her.

Anya was still in the ladies’ room while he stood with the twins, and asked them to survey the selection and choose their flavors.

“Can I have a Shirley Temple?” Wanda asked, bouncing on her toes to make sure that the boy behind the counter saw her.

Erik stood behind her, and smiled, pulling out his wallet, so the clerk could see.

The clerk nodded, and bent towards Wanda’s level.  “Sure, thing, sweetie - how many cherries?”

Erik chuckled at her gasp, mouthed ‘thank you’ to the young clerk, and turned to see which one Pietro was staring at.

“Pietro, sweetie, have you found what you want?”

The little boy shook his head against the glass.

Erik sighed, moved over to an empty table, and slid Lorna down into a chair, balancing her against its white, curly metal backing.

He came over to his son, and noticed that the boy was trying not to cry.  Still shaken up over this morning, apparently.

“You’re not…you’re not mad at me, are you?”

“Oh, Pietro,” he leaned down, and picked him up, and held the boy as he started to sniffle.  Truthfully, yes, he was, but he was mostly glad to have his son alive and in his arms.  This wasn’t the conversation to have inside an ice cream shop.  To the clerk, he handed a credit card, pointed to a banana sundae, and asked if they could have it all to go.  Anya had asked him for rainbow ice cream before they’d got in the car - rainbow colored vanilla, but of course, she thought that the food coloring made a difference.

He tucked his kids back into the car, with about 100 extra napkins more than he was probably allowed to take (but the tired looking mom with three young boys had given him a sympathetic shrug when he was absconding with freebies, so he didn’t feel too bad about it).

While Anya was helping her younger siblings get buckled in, and sorting out treats, he took Pietro to the side, and looked him in the eye.

“Hey, you know no matter how angry with you I get, it was only because I was more afraid of something happening to you, you get that?”

Apparently this was not the thing to say, as Pietro started to blubber.

“But I don’t want you to be angry!”

“I don’t want to be angry with you either, and I’m sorry, but - I need you to be careful, and watch out for your sisters and me.”

Oh hell, he was falling into that trap, putting all the pressure of survival of the females onto the boy’s shoulders, wasn’t he?  Yes, but if Anya hadn’t manifested right then and there, he’d have lost two children today.

“You shouldn’t have run out over the ledge, you know that?  Running out a few feet over the ledge at the swimming pool at the JCC is different, but you could have died today, and Anya too.”

“And that makes you angry,”

“Very angry, because I love you so much, it would kill me to lose you, ok?”

Pietro paused to consider this.  He wiped at his tears with his sleeve.

“Do you forgive me?”

Erik sighed.  Barely…it was too much to hold this over a nine-year old, though. “Yes, because I think you understand how serious this is, and I trust you won’t do something to endanger yourself or your family again,”

Pietro nodded.

“Thank you.”

“Now, go give your big sister Anya a hug, she saved you.  And if you’re very good, she’ll give you ice cream.”

Pietro smiled shyly, then threw his arms around his dad’s neck, and then proceeded back to the car, where his sisters were busy chattering.

Erik sighed, stretched.  Then got back into the car.  Time to go home.


End file.
